Chapter 255 Weight On The Chest

Klaus woke up in the middle of the night with his mind a little foggy, confused. His forehead was very sweaty and his whole body was very hot.

He had definitely just woken up from a very bad nightmare. However, when he tried to remember what he was dreaming about, he couldn't immediately. His mind was a bit fuzzy.

So he got up from the hotel bed, went into the bathroom and splashed some water on his face to try to sort out his thoughts. His heart was racing too fast, scrambling his thoughts.

Thinking further about the sensations he had when he woke up, the main thing he remembered feeling was the sensation of having a weight on his chest.

So Klaus looked at his reflection in the mirror in the bathroom sink, took a deep breath, and asked himself:

"Did that come back?"

Ever since Klaus was just a child, Chun and Michael had already noticed traits in his behavior that made him different from most kids, and among those behaviors was the particularity that he didn't feel anxiety like other people his age. It has always been a super normal thing for children and teenagers to feel anxious and fearful when they are going to do something, Chun and Michael had Rhyzer, Klaus' older brother, and they knew how this was, especially when the person is younger.

However, Klaus never showed them that he was feeling anxious and afraid. This was not because he was a psychopath or anything of the sort, but because he always had an exaggerated confidence in his own abilities.

However, Klaus' lack of nervousness took its toll once, which was when his team won the Myth2 World Championship.

Since Myth2 was the game of the moment at that time, the entire World Championship circuit was long, lasting the whole year. But this year was especially long for Klaus, because it was the year he was the Champion, he made his debut as a professional player, and he played a professional match for the first time in his life. In addition, the team he led went through the Open Qualifier for the National Championship and after they won the long National Championship, he qualified for the World Championship near the end of the year, when he had to work even harder to adapt his team to beat teams with big names in the game.

Klaus was still a child when all this happened. He was 13 years old. He didn't suffer from the nerves like his teammates, nor from the media pressure, because they were the underdogs, but the price for achieving what most people said was impossible came when it was all over.

When Klaus finally arrived in the bedroom of his house, he slept like a rock for a few short hours, until he awoke in the middle of the night, feeling as if there was something heavy on his chest. Klaus' mind could be immune to fear, only his body was not immune to physical and mental stress.

And that night in the hotel in Woodbury, after another moment of ecstasy and victory, Klaus' body finally took its toll once again and reminded him that he was not indestructible. That weight on his body could one day bring him down.

"I guess I underestimated how tired I am. As little time as it may seem, only a month and a half since I started on Rise Online, it feels like it's been longer than that. I think it's time to pull the brakes a little and do some different things to distract myself, at least until the show starts in three days." Klaus said and threw his wet hair back as he looked at himself in the mirror.

As he got back into bed, he picked up his cell phone and checked the time. It was 3:12 in the morning.

"Humph... The first train to New York will be at 7:00 from what the woman at the front desk could tell me, and I ended up losing sleep. What should I do to pass the time until that time?" He wondered, and unconsciously his eyes rested on the table in the corner of the room.

On the table was Klaus' travel bag. He reached into the bag and when he unzipped it, he found his old NeuroGear among the few clothes. Since before the trip he didn't know how long he would be in Woodbury or what awaited him, he forewarned himself and brought the deep immersion equipment.

The decision for what to do to pass the time was not difficult at all, after all there were not many other things for him to do in this small town, considering the schedule as well. Conveniently, the NeuroGears of all models had the storage capacity, so Klaus would not need his computer to log in, just internet connection.

Near the table the bag was on was a long internet wire, which was already included in the hotel's daily rate.

"Start Connection!" Klaus said after lying down on the bed with the NeuroGear on his head.

Suddenly, he was pulled into a completely dark and quiet world, and semi-transparent screens began to pop up in front of him.

[Calibrating data...]

[Calibrating Data.]

[Checking RISE ONLINE game updates...]

[No updates were found.]

[Do you wish to connect to RISE ONLINE? YES/NO]

Klaus clicked YES and the next time he opened his eyes, he was already materialized in the Raven's Leg store. Immediately, he stretched and snapped his stiff neck.

As much as the time zones of New York State and Midgard were a few hours apart, it was night in Midgard as well. It was probably around midnight by now, as the streets were brightly lit by the glow of the moon and a few drunks were wandering around.

"Um. I wonder what I should do now?" He wondered and looked around him.

The store shelves were almost full again, as well as the stock of items, there was no reason to forge. Besides, Kaizen felt that he needed to get out of his routine a bit, as he had gotten used to just staying in the store and exploring the world of Rise Online was something he couldn't help but do if he wanted to keep getting stronger and stronger.

"Well, if that's the case and there's no one here who can convince me otherwise, I think it's finally time to go exploring again."

And Kaizen knew the perfect place for that.

Just a few weeks ago, he was walking among the Silver Mountains, heading for the Howling Canyons, when he came across a woman, specifically a player with the Descragon race, named Xisrith. She was injured, so Kaizen took her to the nearest safe point, which was a small grove of green trees that was totally peaceful. In this very grove was a door with a teleportation stone.

In helping Xisrith, Kaizen ignored this door, as he was concentrating on killing as many Steel Claw Mantis in the Howling Canyons as possible. However, on his return to Holinda, he was pressed for time and decided to experiment with touching the teleportation crystal in the mysterious door. This took him to a crypt dozens of meters underground, and he soon realized, from the snake sounds and the several human statues in the place, that this was the home of a jellyfish.

Since he had already accomplished his objective in the Howling Canyons and had also killed a Centaur Druid, he didn't want to risk losing all the rare items in his inventory while exploring an unknown place, so he left the crypt. However, when Kaizen thought about which place he should explore, he immediately thought of this jellyfish lair.

Unfortunately, ordinary teleportation crystals couldn't take him to this place, as Kaizen didn't even know if the place had a specific name or not. Therefore, he would need to go by horse.

Yes, the place was a little further from the Capital than Kaizen would like, but Black Cloud was a fast mare, and after Kaizen obtained the complete map of Midgard, no place was impossible to get to for him.

Luckily, the stable that Black Cloud was normally in was an adventurer's stable and ran twenty-four hours a day, so Kaizen had no problem picking it up after paying the amount he was owed for the care. The moment he paid with silver coins, Kaizen thought that it wouldn't be bad at all to be able to have a space for Black Cloud in the Equipment Shop or to have an even larger property where he could have his forge separate from the store.

In any case, that was something to think about only in the future.

As Kaizen took the route that would take him fastest to that grove near the Black Cloud Mountains, he couldn't avoid the attacks of the night monsters, which were even more aggressive at night.

Kaizen didn't want to waste too much time dealing with them, nor did he want Black Cloud to end up hurt in some way or run away because he was scared, so he just took his Cursed Bow and started shooting several arrows, one after another, preventing the monsters from getting too close to him.

The arrows he shot flew at high speeds and hit the giant wasps, black wolves and thieves so hard that it blew some of them away.

Kaizen's Attack attribute was exponentially higher than that of the Cursed Bow, so as much as Kaizen had the same amount of Attack attribute points as a level 100 warrior would have, his arrows didn't come out with the same force and speed as if he had stronger equipment.

Kaizen noticed this that night, and as he shot from atop Black Cloud, he thought:

"I urgently need to find the Craft of some bow, a recipe or something. There was nothing about it in the Book of the Legendary Blacksmith Wen Chiu, so I guess I should pay another visit to Alina soon and ask about it."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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